Before she died, Eva Leopold donated a piece of land to the city with the understanding that proceeds from its sale would go to the Balboa Park and San Diego Library endowment funds.

JOHN R. MCCUTCHEN /Union-Tribune

San Diego posted a notice that it would be clearing the garbage from a lot left to the city.

That was a decade ago.

Since then, the lot in Grant Hill, a neighborhood east of downtown, has become a makeshift junkyard and home to transients. Sometimes trash is waist-high, neighbors say. During the summer months, the stench is nauseating.

The rectangular parcel is about 3,000 square feet, sandwiched between two houses. A man who grew up next door remembers playing baseball and soccer on the lot when Leopold owned and cared for it.

She deeded the land to the city of San Diego in 1995.

Francisco Gomez, who owns a rental home adjacent to the lot, said he tried to buy it from the city. Rejected, he put up a fence to buffer his house. A transient recently draped a sheet on the fence for shelter.

Ruben Claros has lived in Gomez's three-bedroom rental house with his wife and children for more than a decade. For as long as he can remember, the site has been vacant, he said, adding, "I don't like it, but what can I do?"

Mary Kelly, a retired freelance writer who lives nearby, said she got so frustrated with the junky lot that she went to the county assessor's office to find out who owned it. Furious when she found that it was the city, Kelly complained to the environmental services department about code violations. Within a few days, the city placed a green sign on the property that said it would be cleared and warned people to remove personal belongings.

But most of the items belonged to no one: dozens of packed trash bags, old toilets, broken televisions, toys, vacuums, coolers, clothes and even an old Christmas tree.

Earlier this month, a city crew cleared the lot. It took two days and a Dumpster.